Souvlaki Greek Cuisine — Restaurant in Baltimore

I used to visit Souvlaki when I lived in Hampden and back then they were a small, one room restaurant with a food board in a fast casual style. About 3 months ago (according to the bartender) they completed a large expansion and now they have a full dining room and bar.

My wife and I had dinner here last night and while I think the food is quite good, and the new expansion is gorgeous, there is room for improvement in some respects.

FOOD For starters we ordered the arugula salad and two glasses of wine from the Greek white section. The arugula salad overall was excellent -- refreshingly light with a simple preparation. The croutons were too large though, giving one the impression of crunching down on a jawbreaker. Recommend smaller or softer croutons, or none at all. The wines were also good and paired well with the salad, but there were some service hiccups I describe below.

For main courses, my wife ordered the spanakopita and I had the bifteki platter. The phyllo dough on my wife's spanakopita was superb, and the dish was made with obvious care -- a highlight. My bifteki platter came with a cucumber and tomato salad and fries in abundance. The portion sizes of the platter are too much for one person.

Overall, the food is solid. And that's really the most important thing. But the menu seems unchanged from when they were a small, fast-casual joint and I had hoped their dining room expansion would come with a revamped menu.

SERVICE The wait staff were all professional, courteous, and generally attentive. The bartender in particular was funny and gregarious. However, I think some "new restaurant growing pains" show in other aspects of the service.

The waiter brought us two typical wine glasses, but poured the wine into those glasses from two mini carafes. This is an odd choice. I'm unclear if it's intended to be an impressive presentation but to us it just came off redundant. Receiving just a filled wine glass would be sufficient. There were also two unusual specks in my glass. My wife's glass was clean. At first I figured it was just sediment but it didn't sink like sediment so I imagine it was something else. In any case, not the end of the world, my wife scooped them out with a knife and I ended up enjoying the wine very much.

My wife ordered the spanakopita, an appetizer, as her main, and the waiter brought it out with our salad. My main course, the bifteki platter, wasn't brought out for another half hour so my wife ended up eating very slowly. Possibly a misunderstanding -- the platter ended up being too generously portioned for one person, so I suppose the waiter made a fair assumption that we were sharing that. So the timing was a little off. Souvlaki could save some money by decreasing the portion sizes of their platters, or reduce food waste by indicating on the menu that it's big enough for two.

These service details seem nitpicky but I bring it up because if they improve on the small things it makes a huge difference in the aggregate. I think they're figuring things out and developing a new identity as a full service restaurant. It's early days.

ATMOSPHERE This is where the expansion really shines. The new dining room is gorgeous. It really is worth experiencing. It's modern but welcoming, sleek yet warm. The music was downtempo EDM, which I love, but your mileage may vary. It's an exceedingly pleasant room to enjoy a meal. Two thumbs up.

I look forward to returning, maybe in a few months, to see how much further they've come. I expect my review will improve then. They're on the...

It really pains me to write this review as I’ve been a consistent and loyal customer for 7+ years, but they need to improve their service significantly.

I’ve been a few times since they renovated and the place looks nice, and thankfully the food hasn’t changed much. It’s still excellent. I’ve sat in twice and some of the menu doesn’t make sense (6.75$ for sparkling water, yet it’s still 10$ for a pita).

Today I went in around 3pm to finish up some work on iPad at the bar, and wanted to try some of the cocktails. I was prepared to spend 60-80$, although I usually never spend more than 20$ at this store. I waited a few minutes behind the “please wait you will be seated” sign and didn’t see any staff. After seeing someone leave with an order from the side, I walked over to the take out area and waited for about five minutes while the staff member put sodas away. I just wanted to ask if the bar was open. After a few minutes she turned around, looked at me, and then walked into the back. Two more minutes passed and I left.

What a shame. This used to be a favorite, and in the future I’ll still spend 11$ on a to go pita if I’ve exhausted everything else, but I’ll never spend more at a place that disregards it’s customers like that. Souvlaki should have stayed a small take out stand, overshot it’s reach, failed to deliver and has now lost a customer of...

Went today and for the first time dined in. It looked beautiful on the inside and was greeted by a young lady. She seemed friendly enough and took our order. As we waited for our order I twice witnessed her blowing her nose while standing in the doorway by the bar, look at the tissue, then get back to rolling silverware and napkins or touching the espresso machine. I tried to let it go but when I saw her do it twice and made no effort to wash her hands I had to go. I politely asked her if our food can be a to go order and to check out. She checks me out and I tell her about my concerns regarding washing her hands and how I didn’t want to embarrass her and she was nonchalant. She said “I’m good” and went on her merry way. No apology, no I’ll do better, no nothing lol. I bought my concern up with what I believe is the shift manager and he half apologizes while telling me “he never saw her do that”. Well of course you wouldn’t see it because he was between the dine in and take out section and when he was back on the dine in side I saw him on his phone 🙃. When we finally got our food from him he gave it to us without a word and with a ripped bag. I’m disappointed since this was my favorite Greek spot in the city but also I won’t be treated poorly because your employees don’t know not to blow their noses in public while at...